All India Tiger Estimation | UPSC
HEADLINES:
India’s Tiger Census sets a New Guinness Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey.
WHY IN NEWS:
A great moment and a shining example of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’: Union Environment Minister
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Conservation of Flora and Fauna : Tiger Conservation : NTCA
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS it is important to understand the counting methods and the present achievements.
For MAINS take a map and make out a comprehensive comparison between different tiger conservation sanctuaries and the methods followed .
CONTEXT:
- Under the leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, India has fulfilled its resolve to double the tiger numbers four years before the target.
ALL INDIA TIGER ESTIMATION
ORGANISERS
The All India Tiger Estimation is steered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority with technical backstopping from the Wildlife Institute of India and implemented by State Forest Departments and partners.
FREQUENCY
All India Tiger Estimation is done quadrennially.
PRESENT ESTIMATION
TARGETS ACHEIVED
- With this number, India is home to nearly 75% of the global tiger population
- This has already fulfilled its resolve of doubling tiger numbers, made at St. Petersburg in 2010, much before the target year of 2022.
SURVEY
- TOOLS : Camera traps (outdoor photographic devices fitted with motion sensors that start recording when an animal passes by).
- LOCATION : Location were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 121,337 square kilometres (46,848 square miles).
- COUNT : In total, the camera traps captured 34,858,623 photographs of wildlife (76,651 of which were tigers and 51,777 were leopards; the remainder were other native fauna).
COUNTING METHODOLOGY
- FOOT SURVEYS : As well as unprecedented camera trap usage, the 2018 “Status of Tigers in India” assessment also conducted extensive foot surveys that covered 522,996 km (324,975 mi) of trails .
- PREY DUNG : Foot surveys sampled 317,958 habitat plots for vegetation and prey dung.
- There is hardly any parallel of such a focused species oriented program like Project Tiger across the world, which started with 9 Tiger Reserves, with 50 tiger reserves currently.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- It’s estimated that the total area of forest studied was 381,200 km2 (147,181 sq mi) and cumulatively the collection and review of data equated to some 620,795 labour-days.
- India has now firmly established a leadership role in tiger conservation, with its bench marking practices being looked at as a gold standard across the world.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB | All India Tiger Estimation | UPSC
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